simplicity over complexity
complexity is a drug. and let’s be honest—you’re probably addicted. it makes you feel smart, like a master engineer spinning golden webs of logic. but here’s the thing: no one cares about your clever complexity.
complexity isn’t a flex; it’s a failure. it’s wasted time, wasted brainpower, and wasted lives fixing your over-engineered mess six months from now. simplicity? that’s the real boss move. it’s not easy, but it’s worth it.
“life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” — confucius
most people complicate things because they don’t have the guts to simplify. why? because simple puts you on the hook. simple forces you to strip away the nonsense and ask, what actually matters here? it’s easier to hide behind complexity than face the truth: your system is bloated garbage.
i’ve seen it over and over. engineers who stack layers of abstractions and call it “scalable.” devs who add a million features and call it “robust.” it’s not robust—it’s a dumpster fire waiting to happen.
i’ve cured friends from this disease. you know what i told them? use your same brain, but flip it. instead of building labyrinths, challenge yourself to make it so simple a drunk intern could figure it out. the best engineers don’t build complexity—they destroy it. and once they embraced that mindset, they killed it. their work wasn’t just better; it was untouchable.
“simplicity is often harder than complexity. but once you get there, you can move mountains.” — steve jobs
so stop hiding behind excuses. stop pretending your complexity is genius. it’s not. genius is doing less, better. if your codebase looks like a pile of spaghetti, you’re not a genius. you’re just another person addicted to chaos.
next time you’re about to over-engineer something, stop. ask yourself: am i solving a problem or am i just stroking my ego? because no one’s impressed with how clever you are if it takes 15 steps to fix a bug in your code. simplicity wins because simplicity works. get on board or get out of the way.
